UNESCO:
CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND HERITAGE PRESERVATION AT THE HEART OF MUTUAL
UNDERSTANDING
Paris,
November 3 (No.2001-121) - UNESCO’s 31st
General Conference - having broken new ground with the adoption of a Universal
Declaration on Cultural Diversity and a
Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, and having
launched a new initiative against the deliberate destruction of cultural
heritage - concluded its work in Paris today.
Attended
by a record number of participants - 2,965, including 2,522 representatives of
185 of UNESCO’s 188 Member States - the 3-week Conference was held under the
presidency of Ahmad Jalali, of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Three Heads of
State – from France, Lithuania and Nigeria – and 230 ministers and
vice-ministers participated in its work.
On October 20, the General Conference adopted a resolution condemning terrorism1
and expressing its “sorrow and indignation
at the tragic events of September 11 in the United States of America”. It
affirmed that “acts of terrorism can never be justified, whatever the
motives”.
Having
“refused to give in to pressures, threats and the attempts that have shaken
the world in recent weeks”, said UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura at
the closing session of the General Conference. “Our behaviour has shown how
much dialogue between cultures and civilizations is not only possible but
fertile and can lead to consensus on questions of the highest importance”.
“Let
us not allow the fire of anger, rejection and discrimination to flare up again
in the world”, said the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Seyyed
Mohammad Khatami, in a statement read by the President of the General
Conference. “We must utilize a global resolve to eradicate all circumstances
and every thought which may lead to violence, terrorism and compulsion. Violence
is obedient to no order, rule or regulations, and to defeat violence through
violence is an illusion.”
Speaking
moments before, Ray Wanner, head of the observer delegation from the United
States of America, expressed his “government’s respect and thanks to the
Director-General, the General Conference and the Executive Board for their
unambiguous condemnation of terrorism and for their affirmation that nothing,
nothing can justify such acts. I thank them and UNESCO’s dedicated staff for
their vigorous efforts to build, through co-operation in education, in science,
in culture and in communication, the trust, the understanding, the respect and
the dialogue among civilizations and nations, which is essential to the
construction of a lasting peace.”
Mr
Wanner went on to pledge “that we will continue to work towards that day when
the United States can participate in full membership with UNESCO and partnership
with all its Member States in achieving these essential goals.”
The
General Conference adopted UNESCO’s budget, US$ 544 million for the two years
ahead which represents zero percent nominal growth - negative growth in real
terms.
The
General Conference unanimously approved the Organization’s programme
priorities, proposed by the Director-General, in favour of basic education;
fresh water resources and ecosystems; the ethics of science and technology;
diversity, intercultural pluralism and dialogue; and universal access to
information, especially in the public domain.
The present session of the General Conference focussed on
standard-setting measures, notably the
UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity2.
Adopted by acclamation, it is the first major international standard-setting
instrument conceived to promote cultural diversity. Its adoption confirms the
view that “intercultural dialogue is the best guarantee for peace, rejecting
the ideas that conflicts between cultures and civilizations are inevitable”,
said Mr Matsuura.
“Creation draws on the roots of cultural tradition, but flourishes in
contact with other cultures. For this reason, heritage in all its forms must be
preserved, enhanced and handed on to future generations as a record of human
experience and aspirations, so as to foster creativity in all its diversity to
inspire genuine dialogue among cultures,” the Declaration states in its 7th
Article.
For
the first time the international community has endowed itself with a
comprehensive standard-setting instrument which “elevates cultural diversity
to the rank of common heritage of humanity, as necessary for the human race as
is biodiversity in the natural world. This makes the protection of cultural
diversity an ethical imperative inseparable from human dignity,” Mr Matsuura
said.
The
General Conference also adopted, by vote, a Convention
on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage3 banning
the pillaging and destruction of ancient shipwrecks and sunken archaeological
sites for commercial exploitation. It gives priority to in situ preservation of
heritage that has been under water for at least 100 years.
In
dealing with heritage preservation,
the General Conference authorized UNESCO to pursue its work for the protection
and enhancement of intangible cultural
heritage, including linguistic heritage. It requested UNESCO to work on the
drafting of a standard-setting instrument on the protection of threatened
traditional and popular cultures.
The
General Conference asked UNESCO to prepare a draft Declaration
against the Intentional Destruction of Cultural Heritage aimed
at preventing crimes such as the destruction by the Taleban of the giant
Buddha statues of Bamiyan. The aim of the Declaration would be to reinforce
provisions contained in existing international cultural heritage conventions.
The
General Conference endorsed the call by Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura for
the launch, under the auspices of UNESCO, of an international effort to
safeguard the heritage of the Old City of
Jerusalem, including the setting up of a comprehensive plan for the
preservation of the city’s outstanding heritage, in the spirit of the 1972
Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
The importance of preserving diversity was also a major concern in
debates concerning UNESCO’s activities in the sciences
and the General Conference expressed commitment for UNESCO’s bioethics
programme.
During
the General Conference, 52 ministers in
charge of science met for two days (October 22 and 23) at a roundtable
debate entitled “Bioethics:
International Implications”,
which recognized bioethics a key issue in the protection of human rights and
fundamental freedoms. In a communiqué4 published at the end of the
meeting, the ministers highlighted bioethics’ “predominant role in the
social choices that need to be made in order to bring together scientific
progress and the inalienable primacy of respect for human dignity, integrity and
freedom. Nevertheless, this concern must take into account the imperative of
freedom of research.”
In their communiqué, the ministers pledged to promote the principles set
out in the Universal Declaration on
the Human Genome and Human Rights (adopted by UNESCO in 1997) and its
implementation in their national legislation or regulations. They further stated
their opposition to reproductive human cloning as “a practice contrary to
human dignity”. Equally important was their declaration that “the human
genome in its natural state shall not give rise to financial gains”. They
called on UNESCO, “as a leading agency in bioethics at the international
level”, to work on a universal legal instrument encompassing all major aspects
of bioethics, a proposal which was endorsed by the General Conference.
In the field of education, the
General Conference formulated unanimous support for UNESCO’s commitment to
promote education as a fundamental right. It emphasized UNESCO’s role in
ensuring inclusive education, and education that helps fight poverty and
exclusion. Strong support was given to efforts to meet the complex challenges
raised by the HIV/AIDS pandemic and
to counter its impact on educational capacities. There was unanimous backing for
UNESCO’s commitment to the international drive to provide universal access to
quality basic education, formulated at the World Education Forum.
Progress in the drive to achieve the goals of the World
Education Forum (Dakar, Senegal 2000) was the subject, on October 29 and 30,
of the first meeting of the High Level
Group on Education for All (EFA).5
The Group argued
that “the events of 11 September, 2001, have further emphasized the absolute
importance of universal basic education of good quality as an essential, if not
sufficient, condition for a healthier, more democratic and more tolerant
world.” It stressed that “EFA goals must be pursued as part and parcel of
national poverty reduction strategies” and “implemented in the context of
macro-economic frameworks and policy reforms.”
Information
and communication technologies (ICTs) were at the heart of the General
Conference debates and are expected to play a key role in all of UNESCO’s
fields of competence. The General Conference stressed that equitable access to
cyberspace should enable better expression of cultural diversity in all its
forms, including multilingualism, and called on UNESCO to continue its work on a
standard-setting instrument on cyber space.
“The
road will no doubt be a long one, as is always the case in the standard-setting
process, before legal instruments which meet with the approval of all can be
devised,” said the Director-General at the close of the General Conference.
“But in all fields where it is required - I am in particular thinking of the
promotion and use of multilingualism and universal access to cyberspace a
subject about which the debate revealed that we still need to let our thinking
mature and continue in depth consultations.”
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For
more information about the General Conference
http://www.unesco.org/confgen/index.shtml
1 http://www.unesco.org/bpi/eng/unescopress/2001/01-112e.shtml
2 http://www.unesco.org/bpi/eng/unescopress/2001/01-120e.shtml
4 http://www.unesco.org/bpi/eng/unescopress/2001/01-113e.shtml
5http://www.unesco.org/education/efaglobal_co/policy_group/index.shtml
